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Social Media for Hospitality

Providing customer service via Twitter is commonplace for the hospitality industry. Who can forget when entrepreneur Peter Shankman jokingly tweeted Morton’s Steakhouse requesting they deliver a steak to him at the airport? Upon landing in Newark, Peter was greeted by a Morton’s server with a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, shrimp, potatoes, and bread. Pulling something…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know Pokémon Go has taken over everyone’s attention spans and news feeds. Pokémon Go is a virtual reality game that allows users to travel between the real world and the virtual world through their smartphones. Millions of people are wandering the streets with their eyes glued to…

Having emerged among a now social-savvy audience that is now familiar with and immersed in social media, Snapchat’s growth has been ahead of where other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were when they were four years new. Although many still consider Snapchat an app for teenage sexting, its evolution has shown that marketers…

Have you ever considered traveling abroad to volunteer? The term “voluntourism” refers to a form of tourism in which travelers participate in voluntary work, typically for a charity. It’s an excellent way to combine a desire for travel with a desire to give back to communities or worthwhile entities. There are a variety of businesses…

Located in the friendly and quiet community of Costa Teguise on the beautiful and environmentally aware Canary Island of Lanzarote, the Sands Beach Resort is situated on a sandy crescent of beachfront property that is wrapped around a picturesque seawater lagoon. This luxury hotel features spacious rooms with amazing views, several on-site restaurant and bar options, multiple…

When it comes to LinkedIn, many don’t realize the various ways the professional social network can leverage your bottom line. According to a study of LinkedIn stats compiled by Digital Marketing Ramblings, LinkedIn now has 332 million users, attained 28 billion views, and the average user has 930 connections. This is clearly a space where…

It’s always a good time to take a look at some social media marketing trends that the hospitality industry is perfectly poised to leverage. It’s also a good idea to begin thinking about overarching plans and set distinct plans in motion to reach specific goals. Here are a few ways to take your social media…

The holiday season is fast approaching and it’s never too soon to get a leg up on holiday marketing. As the holiday season approaches, the hospitality industry is taking to social media with a variety of interesting themed campaigns. Last year, a video surrounding WestJet Airlines’ coordinating and executing a Night Before Christmas campaign was…

Since social media is now commonplace, especially when it comes to travel, hotels are burdened with the additional responsibility of standing out among the noise. While having a strong, consistent social media presence is essential, hotels can take their guests’ experience to the next level by injecting social into the overall culture of the property….

As Facebook remains the “big kid on the block” in the world of social media marketing, there are a variety of functionalities that marketers can take advantage of above and beyond just adding posts. Of course, Facebook contests and targeted advertising reap numerous benefits, but there are also some additional aspects of Facebook that aren’t…

Snapchat is still flying a bit under the radar for marketers. The app, which allows people to exchange messages that self-destruct seconds after they’re viewed, has attracted an estimated 82 million users, most of whom are between ages 13 and 25, according to Business Insider. Although the messages are temporary, users are still able to…

Social media has transformed the traditional notions behind marketing and sales across all industries. Nowhere has this been more dramatic than in the service-driven hospitality sector. Host an Event Invite both locals and visitors to come to your hotel for an exclusive event in which they can first-handedly experience the property and its offerings. Provide…

With huge competition, hotels are innately bestowed the difficult task of continuously coming up with unique packages to entice travelers. However, by using social media, there are various ways to tie travel experiences to distinct online campaigns. This adds a layer of intimacy due to the social interaction, and also allows properties to virtually “sell…

Even though hospitality is inherently a B2C industry, there are many aspects of it that fall into the B2B category as well. Hotels and restaurants work with a variety of vendors in order to function, and many thrive on group business and bookings of meeting space. Targeting meeting planners can be daunting task, but with…

Google analytics has been getting increasingly savvy about providing data from social-media driven website traffic. One of the metrics that tends to be off is bounce rate. “Bounce rate” is the percentage of single-page visits. Unlike the other numbers and percentages you see in Google analytics, this is the odd one – it’s the one…

WestJet Airlines has been receiving huge praise for a recent marketing initiative that involved surprising numerous unknowing travelers with Christmas gifts. The entire process was captured on video and relayed by a rhyming tune reminiscent of The Night Before Christmas. WestJet, a Canadian low-cost carrier, set up displays at the Toronto and Hamilton International airports…

As we all heard, Carnival Cruise Lines has endured an array of bad press over the past few years. It all started when a Carnival-owned Costa Cruise ship crashed on the coast of Italy and killed 32 people. Then, more recently came the company’s notorious “poop cruise,” in which an engine fire stranded the flagship…

While I’ve talked a lot about how hospitality brands are using Twitter, Facebook and the like, I realized I hadn’t yet touched upon how the hospitality industry can use LinkedIn. An August 2013 study of LinkedIn shows that the professional network currently has 238 million users, with 40% of them checking in daily. LinkedIn tends…

Facebook has rolled out various changes in the past month. While such changes are usually met with confusion and hesitation, learning what they mean and how to use them properly can help hospitality brands optimize their potential. As more and more people are making travel plans based on social networks, having an understanding of these…

Utilizing Google+ business pages is extremely important for a number of reasons. In addition to recently merging Google+ and Google pages, we all know Google is the leading search engine, and therefore the integration of Google+ with search engine marketing is critical. Windmill Networking’s Google+ columnist Mark Traphagen points out: Google+ represents far more than…

Four Seasons Social Media Case Study Four Seasons has done an exceptional job integrating social media into their website and general marketing, and constantly continues to expand its social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Weibo and Pinterest as well as TripAdvisor. Their corporate Facebook page has over 150,000 fans, while their Twitter feed has over 60,000 followers. With a…

With a $1 billion acquisition by Facebook and over 80 million users as of last August, Instagram has officially become a platform to watch. Destinations, hotels and restaurants would be amiss to undermine the potency of having a presence on this channel, and optimizing it through a promotion or some sort of initiative to maximize…

A few years ago, I and a group of friends that met through social media formed an Orange County-based networking group called ConnectOC. The group’s goal was to create opportunities for local businesspeople to meet others in a comfortable environment, free of cost. A local Hilton hotel hosted our first two events complimentary, and we…

Food trucks have evolved rapidly over the past several years, many regularly booked throughout the week as various popular events and accessible locations. This hospitality industry relies primarily on social media to spread the word and keep fans appraised of their whereabouts, and some are doing so in unique ways. Dallas-based Two Trucks LLC launched…

Hotel and destination mobile apps are a great way to create space for travelers to learn more about where they’re going and plan their vacations accordingly. Exploring an actual (non-mobile friendly) site on a smart phone can be burdensome when it’s not mobile-optimized as the user is forced to zoom in, read tiny print, then…

Social Media events are a great way for hotels and restaurants to gain exposure. Though offering up freebies to a large audience could initially feel like a loss rather than a gain, the potential ROI of doing so in this context is uniquely unprecedented. It may seem counter-productive to invite locals into your hotel, as…

Pinterest has emerged as a social platform to watch as more businesses jump on board (no pun intended). It lets users organize things they find on the web by creating pinboards then “pinning” items onto boards of each corresponding category. My first thought upon learning about businesses trying Pinterest was that it’s a perfect platform…

Social media has revolutionized the way businesses are able to interact with consumers – It sets an unprecedented opportunity for brands to raise the bar in providing unique, personal experiences for customers past, present and future. The hospitality industry in particular has an enormous opportunity to market in innovative ways via tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogging, mobile-based initiatives and…

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ABOUT NEAL

Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in the growing world of social media for business.